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October 23, 2007 tues.
October 23rd, 2007


QUIZ: Below in the story of Dutch Schultz (1935), one of the press corps at the scene of his murder was the famous crime photographer Weegee(1899-1968). His real name was Arthur Fellig. Why was he called Weegee?
Answer below.
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Birthdays; Johnny Carson, Adlai Stevenson, Pele, Zioniev, Weird Al Yankovic, Dwight Yoakham, Gore Vidal, Doug Flutie, Michael Crichton, Chi-Chi Rodriquez, Sam Raimi, Ang Lee, Phillip Kaufman, porn star Jasmine St. Claire, Gummo Marx

42 BC- Battle of Phillipi- The forces of Marc Anthony and Octavian defeated the Republican legions of Brutus and Cassius in Greece. Ancient historians routinely exaggerated numbers involved, but Phillipi was considered one of the largest battles of the Roman period. Marcus Brutus and Cassius Longinus, who had assassinated Julius Caesar two years earlier, died on the battlefield.

1661- King Charles II, the Merry Monarch, crowned at Westminster Abbey. The current English Crown Jewels date from this time since Oliver Cromwell’s Puritan Parliament had the original crown jewels destroyed.

1812- THE MALET PLOT-While Napoleon was retreating from Moscow thousands of miles away all France waited anxiously for news of his fate. This day a deranged civil servant named Malet convinced Paris that Napoleon was dead and his army destroyed. In the ensuing panic Malet actually succeeded in taking over the French Government ! After a few days the confusion was eventually straightened out and Malet imprisoned. But it was terribly discouraging to Napoleon. He had hoped to build a dynasty to last generations after he was gone; but it took only one lone nut armed with a rumor to show lack of support for his regime.

1928- A financial consortium led by banker-bootlegger Joseph Kennedy Sr. buys the Keith Albee theater circuit and merged it with the Radio Company and the Orpheum theaters to form Radio-Keith-Orpheum or RKO pictures. After Joe Kennedy met with the other Hollywood moguls he told a friend :”They’re all a bunch of Austrian Pants Pressers! I can take their businesses away from them!” Kennedy made a quick killing then got out of the picture business in 1930, just before the Depression dropped his studios stock value. RKO made films like King Kong, Fort Apache and Citizen Kane before merging into Desilu in 1957.

1930- The first Miniature Golf tournament held in Chattanooga Tenn.

1931- Chicago gangster Al Capone sentenced to 11 years in Alcatraz for federal income tax evasion.

1935- New York gangster Dutch Schultz was rubbed out. The erratic Schultz (real name Arthur Fleigenheimer ) had announced to the other mob bosses that Federal prosecutor Thomas Dewey was getting too close so he would kill him. To the syndicate killing such a high profile fed was going too far and would bring the wrath of Washington down on them, so Lucky Luciano decided it was easier to take care of the Dutchman. Schultz was having dinner at the Bob Treat Porkchop House in Newark with his crooked accountant "Abadaba" ( a corruption of Abracadabra ) when he excused himself to go to the mens room. Hitmen followed him and pumped 6 slugs into him while at the urinal. Gee, I hope he zipped up.....

1940- Shooting on the film Citizen Kane wrapped.

1955-Vietnamese Emperor Bao Dai abdicated to a South Vietnamese Republic set up outside of and ignoring Ho Chi Minhs Viet Minh communists.

1956- The great Hungarian Rising of Inver Nagy. Inspired by the seeming liberalism Nikita Khruschev was bringing to Moscow, thousands march to the statue of the poet Petofi to read his poem "Arise, Hungarians!" and burn newspaper torches. It turned out Khruschev wasn't as liberal as they thought, a month later hundreds of Soviet tanks crush them.

1971-Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida opened.

1973- President Nixon ordered a world wide red alert of our strategic nuclear forces to warn the Soviets not to take advantage of U.S. domestic turmoil over Watergate. Soviet ambassador Dobrynin wrote in his memoirs that Secretary of State Henry Kissinger later telephoned and apologized to him for the alert. He said that it was done to distract U.S. opinion from the Watergate scandal.

1983- Jessica Savitch was one of the first women journalists to break the barrier for women getting the top anchor jobs in network news broadcasting. This day she died in a car accident.

1983- President Ronald Reagan had sent U.S. Marines into civil war torn Beirut to achieve peace. This day a suicide bomber drives a truck full of dynamite into the Marines barracks, killing 241 men in their sleep. Reagan then withdrew the remaining Marines. Cut and Run indeed. When Congress tried to enforce the War Powers Act limiting the President's power as commander in chief to send troops in harm's way, Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger testified to Congress that Act didn't apply because the Beirut situation was not a war. "What was it then?" The incredulous senators asked. Cap replied-"it is a state of Organized Violence.”

1987- Judge Robert Bork was defeated in his bid for a seat on the Supreme Court. Besides offending Liberals by being a longtime Conservative stalwart, he offended Conservatives by admitting under oath he tried smoking marijuana The Senate turned him down 58-47.
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QUIZ: Below in the story of Dutch Schultz (1935), one of the press corps at the scene of his murder was the famous crime photographer Weegee. His real name was Arthur Fellig. Why was he called Weegee?

ANSWER: Fellig slept by day and worked all night. He had a police band radio in his car and good contacts in the underworld, so he always managed to be the first at a crime scene. When a corpse wasn't aesthetically posed correctly, Weegee moved the body to make a better composition. He was so good at getting there first that people thought he was psychic. The police called him Ouija Board, shortened to Weegee. His first book of photos- The Naked City, became a classic.


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